The Dominant Eye Theory Is Totally Wrong!

[Nic Barrow]

You have obviously reached a pretty high standard.
Well done.
It is likely that you are playing using your vision centre, otherwise it is unlikely you would be playing at that standard.
But I have found SOOOOO many players ruined by the TERRIBLE COACHING ADVICE: 'Ok that is your 'dominant' eye with the pointing at the chalk method... so you better cue completely or largely under that eye because that is what makes sense and what some bloke down the club told me 34 years ago'.

[Nic Barrow]

Some players are totally under one eye - but VERY unusual to find someone who has trained their eyes to see the ball straight with BOTH eyes to one side of the cue.
Although i would not discount that the brain could do that.
I have never seen a player who can do that and be in their optimum eye alignment position

miles rest.PNGrex williams front on.PNG

[Ramon]

Hi thread. I honestly believe the whole "dominant or "sighting" eye is a load of BS. I you set up the shot correctly with a fairly "normal" stance, grip etc, your natural sighting will find itself......there are way too many variables in trying to perfect your game to get what should be natural sighting involved. Just my opinion

Also, I have suffered from bad vision, corrective vision (contacts and glasses) and now have perfect vision. Both my eyes are still the same but I still however look the same on the shot....

this's a good post. However , i do'nt think it's a load of BS.
the problem is that many coaches (or players), are confuseing the scientific definition of dominant eye ,, with the definition of dominant eye in the game of snooker. which are not the same, imo.

btw, intresting thread. we've been talk a bout it here on this forum many times. but still, it's a intresting topic.

[Nic Barrow]

Good post Matt.
Was your vision strength EQUAL in both eyes before you had corrective procedures?
If so I would expect the head to stay in the same position relative to the cue after the procedures.
If not, I would expect in most cases a slightly different head position to evolve.

I agree with what you say largely - in my experience, 90% of players find their vision centre naturally (a lower percentage if they are beginners) so I discreetly check their aiming on straight pots - if they are ok I don't even mention alignment to them as it will confuse the issue unnecessarily.

[tetricky]

I fundamentally disagree with you that in all cases it's about vision STRENGTH. Eye dominance is not correlated with strength of vision, and I believe in some cases eye dominance plays a part. I defer to your snooker experience, but I have personal and professional optical experience that leads me to believe this.

[mythman69]

Have you seen this video???

[Nic Barrow]

I agree with your disagreement!
It is NOT about strength only, but also preferred / dominant eye, and ones ability in stereoscopic/3D/binocular vision.
The above conglomeration combines to offer one optimum head position.
I have NO idea what they may be until the player gets down and does the test - and their head/eye position in the test will be their optimum for vision centre.
10% of my clients' dominant/preferred eye is WEAKER than the other.
What is your professional experience?
Always interested to learn more as I cannot know everything.

[Nic Barrow]

This is more to do with how well the player gets down to the shot.
and then cueing and delivery play a part too of course.
It also shows that 90% of aiming is done with peripheral vision, or ever with the brain knowing where the pockets are relative to the cushions.
The looking between the balls is just the icing on the cake - whereas most people think the eye movements (or 'Eye-Cue_action') are the be all and end all of aiming and sighting a ball

[mythman69]

This is more to do with how well the player gets down to the shot.
and then cueing and delivery play a part too of course.
It also shows that 90% of aiming is done with peripheral vision, or ever with the brain knowing where the pockets are relative to the cushions.
The looking between the balls is just the icing on the cake - whereas most people think the eye movements (or 'Eye-Cue_action') are the be all and end all of aiming and sighting a ball

Yes I agree Nic.

[Byrom]

Messing with sighting can be both productive and dangerous - depends if you know what you are on about and it brings you better results obviously - I don't really know what your point is on this Nik. Sighting as much as anything is an individual thing - I guess you not a sight right fan then? Or I might be wrong? You need to expand upon it a little more I think,

I made a brew while I put you tube on and noticed my pet opossum watching your you tube clip and quickly switched it off - sadly I was too late to save her.

[MattB147]

Hi Nick.

My left eye was slightly stronger that my left. Left was 6.25 and right was 7.00. Now after laser surgery they are 20/20. I have always cued with my head slightly turned to the right so I guess favouring my left eye ever so slightly.

I honestly have never thought about it for almost 30 years though, so this has not changed since laser correction I may have to change my opinion slightly and at least be open to the possibility of the 'dominant eye' theory.....

Hope that made a modicum of sense.

Matt

[vmax4steve]

You have two eyes and therefore see two cues, the brain decides you only need one cue on the line of aim because there is only one line of aim, and the brain decides which eye to use to place the cue on that line when you address the tip to the cue ball.

Now if you do have a very dominant eye the brain will in most cases use that one and you will naturally cue under that eye, but the brain can decide which eye it wants to use, not always the dominant one, but it really does use only one.
You may cue centre chin but your head position will dictate which eye is being used, it's always just one because you have to place only one of the two cues you can see on the line of aim.

Do not under any circumstances override what your brain has decided just to conform to some coaches ideal of technique, you will only mess up your sighting completely.

When you focus only on the cue, you see only one cue, open and close each eye alternately and you will see that only with one eye will the cue be addressed to the centre of the cue ball; when you focus on the cue ball or the object ball you can see two cues in your peripheral vision, only one of which is at the centre of the cue ball.

Dominant eye or preferred eye, doesn't matter as long as you realise that it's only one eye, trust your eyes/eye to find the line of aim, look at the target and keep still on the shot; no need to buy any sighting aids, rant over.

[Nic Barrow]

Hi Steve
I agree with you 100% on:
Do not under any circumstances override what your brain has decided just to conform to some coaches ideal of technique, you will only mess up your sighting completely.

However, you seem to be recommending that a player should sight under one eye only? If that is the case, I have to tell you that this advice causes huge problems (and earns me more money that from any other topic in aiming by players coming in and trying to unpick the mess they are in).

The reason snooker players don't wear eye patches as rifle shooters do is that we need depth perception which arises from the 3d vision we get when the brain fuses the left and right 2d images together. This helps to gauge potting angles and plot & plan the cue ball path better.

Otherwise pros would all have concluded that they should be wearing pouches to prevent the second eyes vision interfering with their aiming.

No pro ever looks at the cue when cueing up - although all players see the cue in their peripheral vision. There will be many pros if asked 'how many cues do you see when you are on the shot' who will be genuinely surprised that they see two, because they simply have never thought about it - and never needed to.

By dominant, do you mean STRONGER? Most people confuse the two, and the traditional 'dominant' eye which we discover with the 'find the chalk test' will be WEAKER than the other eye in around 10% of cases.
If one eye is much stronger then the player's vision centre will USUALLY favour that eye, but in some cases the head will remain central to the cue like some (but not all) pros.

[Nic Barrow]

Poor thing.
Sight Right has a place in the market - although I have tried to bring an overall solution to the market which gives more benefits, quicker, and for less money.
I would be really interested to hear some reviews from clients who buy it and who also own the Sight Right.
Perhaps to give some side to side reviews and put a video or written review up.
The debate would gain a larger audience, and the market will benefit overall through more solutions being available.

[Nic Barrow]

Hi Matt
'Dominant' is different from 'Stronger' and it is vital that is understood.
AND just because one eye is stronger than the other, and just because EVERY player has a 'dominant' (I prefer to use the term 'preferred' as it does not get confused strength) eye...
does NOT mean they should under just one eye.
Advice to the contrary gives the players who come to see me more problems than any other theory in aiming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXEzWmhm5z0